Genesis
by YappiChick
Summary: Agent Dana Scully gets assigned to her first field agent position: partners with her husband.


Title: Genesis  
Author: YappiChick  
Email: I love it more than candy:)  
Website: Surely!  
Rating: PGish  
Spoilers: The Pilot  
Category: AU, MSR  
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Never have, never will.  
Author's Notes: This is a response to the MSR Preservation Challenge. Requirements posted at the end. As always, thanks to the incredible beta skills of MF Luder! You totally rule!

Quantico, Virginia  
January 13, 1990

"Please, Dana," Kelly Preston said with a pout. "You have to come."

"She's right, you know," said Tom Colton, licking barbeque sauce off his fingers, "to miss this could be the biggest mistake of your life. Every agent wants a chance to work in the BSU."

Dana Scully rolled her eyes as she took a bite of her salad. "Not everyone does, Tom."

Kelly shot a glance at Tom. They knew that Dana was stubborn when she didn't want to do something. The two of them had been trying to convince her to go to the semi-annual BSU seminar for the past three days with no success. "Why don't you want to go? I hear Spooky Mulder is going to be there."

Dana snorted. "That's more of a reason not to go. I hear he's cracked up from all the profiles he's done."

Tom finished the last of his iced tea. "There's going to be a Q&A segment after each presentation. I'm sure you can think of a question that would make him look like a fool in front of everyone." He knew Dana could never back down from a challenge. "Think of how you could impress our instructors if you can actually stump Spooky."

She looked interested. After considering it, she stuck her hand out. "Deal."

Dana spent the rest of the week trying to learn all that she could about Fox Mulder. Everyone said he was brilliant. Erratic. Unpredictable. Spooky. She quickly learned that Agent Mulder used his intuition rather than facts to solve most cases. She figured she could use that to her advantage in finding the perfect question to ask him.

On Thursday, she, Kelly and Tom all arrived at the seminar together. They sat through the introduction speech given by William Patterson. Dana noticed that most people in the audience didn't seem to like him that much. Finally, he left the stage after he introduced Agent Mulder.

Dana couldn't believe what she saw walking on stage. When people were talking about crazy Fox Mulder, no one cared to mention how good looking he was. His hazel eyes roamed over the crowd, as if to gauge their temperament. His suit fit his body perfectly as he walked to the center of the stage. He smiled at someone in the audience and Dana's stomach fluttered. He was better than good looking; he was gorgeous.

She looked at Kelly, who had the same lust-filled look in her eye, and Tom, who was looking at Dana. "You're not backing out now, are you?" he asked with a slight taunt in his voice.

She refused to go back on her word even now. She sighed inwardly; it would be a shame to humiliate such a handsome man in front of everybody. Nevertheless, a deal was a deal. "I'm still in," she whispered.

He spent twenty minutes talking about the way to construct a profile. He talked about studying the suspect's past, the importance of understanding psychology, and connecting to the suspect's thoughts. Nowhere in his speech did he mention anything about forensic data and its significance.

When it was time for the Q&A part of the program, Dana waited her turn. After a couple of sophomoric questions ("how does it feel to be a living legend?"), it was her turn. She took a deep breath as she spoke clearly into the microphone. "My name is Dana Scully. Agent Mulder, how can you stand up there and belittle the importance of forensic data when statically it is that, not profiles, that lead to the capture of suspects?"

She heard several people in the audience gasp. Apparently, no one dared questioned Fox Mulder.

To her, and everyone else's, surprise, he smiled at her. "Tell me, Scully," he said with a teasing tone, "do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?"

Nobody could see where he was going with his question, but Dana answered all the same. "Logically, I would have to say no. Given the distances needed to travel from the far reaches of space, the energy requirements would exceed the spacecraft's capabilities..."

He cut her off. "Conventional wisdom. Believe me, Scully, if there was a way science could solve every crime that is committed, every agent in BSU would be thrilled. If everyone truly understood the work we do, no one would be sitting here wanting to learn more about it."

She saw Bill Patterson walking towards him quickly. Apparently, Agent Mulder wasn't allowed to speak of the negative aspects of his job.

If Mulder saw Patterson coming, he didn't show it. He continued speaking passionately, as if to convey the importance of what he was saying. "Each profile takes a bit of your soul away from you until you are nothing more than a shell of a person--" As he was being escorted off stage, he shot Dana a look of complete sadness.

Patterson took the microphone away from Mulder. "We apologize for Agent Mulder's comments. Apparently, he is still experiencing jet lag from his early morning flight. Thank you."

Dana walked back to her friends. Kelly looked a little sad and Tom had a smug look on his face. "See, Dana, only you could have pulled something like that off."

She sat in her chair, not feeling like celebrating her "success".

Dana sat alone as she ate her lunch. She passed the invitation to get a bite to eat with her friends and walked alone to the sandwich shop across the street from the auditorium. She nibbled her sandwich, not feeling very hungry. The haunted look in Mulder's eye as he was humiliated in front of everyone still lingered with her.

She looked out the window, watching people walk by. She knew coming to this seminar was a bad idea. If only she wouldn't have been so eager to prove herself to Tom, Agent Mulder could have at least left his speech with a sense of dignity.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

She turned and saw Mulder standing next to her table. "Agent Mulder!" she said, surprised he would want to talk to her. "Please, have a seat."

He sat across from her and glanced out the window. "Did you see anything interesting out there?"

Her face colored. He had obviously been watching her for a couple of minutes without her knowing. "Not really. Agent Mulder--"

"It's just Mulder," he gently corrected.

She nodded before continuing. "Mulder, I want to apologize for my question to you earlier. I didn't mean to come off as a heckler."

He smiled slightly. "It's alright that you don't agree with my viewpoint. I'm just glad someone had enough nerve to say it to my face. Since that case in Oklahoma, there aren't very many people outside of Patterson, who tell me that I'm wrong." The girl at the counter brought him his food.

He took a bite out of his sandwich before he continued talking. "I'm glad that I saw you in here. I wanted to say I'm sorry for haring out like that at the end. What I said was inappropriate and inexcusable." He didn't sound like he believed the last part of what he said.

She looked into his eyes. They were more haunted than she thought. She could only imagine the horrific things he had seen during his brief time in the Bureau. "It's true though, isn't it?"

"Agent Scully--"

"Actually," she interrupted. "I'm not an agent yet. I'm going through Quantico right now."

"All right then, Scully," he started again. She almost corrected him to call her Dana, but she enjoyed hearing her last name coming from him. As trivial as it was, it was something just between the two of them. "There isn't a second that goes by that I don't wish to be out of there. It's hell on earth."

"Then why don't you? Leave. Ask for a transfer."

He smiled at her naivety. "It's not that easy, Scully. You hear what they say about me. I solve cases that no one else can. How would I be able to silence those victims' screams if I didn't try to help them?"

"But, Mulder," she argued, "you can only do so much. You shouldn't punish yourself for being human."

"Patterson does enough punishing," Mulder muttered.

That was the second time he brought his superior agent up. It was time for a subject change, she thought. "What does your girlfriend think about this?" she asked.

He looked confused. "Girlfriend? I haven't had one of those in years," he admitted sheepishly.

She looked at him with a smug look on her face. "Well, that's your problem, Mulder. You need to find someone who is going to make sure you take care of yourself."

Looking into her eyes, he saw a determination there that surprised him. It was as if his well being really matted to her. "Scully, you are probably the first person to care about how I feel since I joined the Bureau," he said honestly.

She couldn't help but to blush slightly. "It's your eyes."

"What?" he asked.

"They are so sad. So lonely."

Looking in the window, he saw his faint reflection looking back at him. Sure, he looked tired, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about that. Somehow, this cadet had managed to see what he was hiding from everyone else.

He reached over the table and took her hand. Instead of pulling away, she squeezed his hand back slightly and rubbed it with her thumb. "Scully, I think you are going to be the best thing that has ever happened to me," he said happily.

F.B.I. Headquarters  
March 3, 1992

Scully had been trying to calm her nerves unsuccessfully the entire morning. Though she had tried to dismiss her husband's concerns, she knew that the situation she was about to go into was highly unusual. Talented instructors weren't pulled out of their assignment in the middle of a session for no reason, he argued the night before. Despite herself, she began to wonder what the FBI's true motives of her reassignment were.

As she stepped off the elevator, she took a deep breath and approached the desk that was placed in front of Blevins's office.

"Agent Dana Scully," she said.

The secretary nodded for her to continue down the path. Ok, Scully thought, that wasn't so bad. She didn't feel quite as nervous as she reached the door to Blevins' office. "Come in," she heard his muffled response through the door.

She walked inside and noticed not only Scott Blevins, but also two other men in his office. Her trepidation suddenly returned in full force. If Blevins noticed, he didn't make any outward signs of it. He continued speaking as she walked into his office. "Agent Scully, thank you for coming on such short notice. Please..." he said, motioning for her to take a seat in front of his desk.

He looked at the papers sitting on top of his desk. "We see you've been with us just over two years."

Scully nodded slightly. "Yes, sir."

He continued reading the papers on his desk. "You went to medical school, but you chose not to practice. How'd you come to work for the FBI?"

She was confused. If that was her employee file, as she assumed it was, he would have the answer right in front of him. Perhaps this was his way of putting her at ease. Unfortunately for him, the opposite effect occurred. Now Scully was measuring every word she said, knowing it would be under intense scrutiny. She paused for a second before answering. "Well, sir, I was recruited out of medical school. Um, my parents still think it was an act of rebellion, but, uh, I saw the FBI as a place where I could distinguish myself."

She didn't know why, but she felt uncomfortable with telling them the whole truth. True, when she had first joined the Bureau her parents didn't understand her decision. But, since her marriage, she had the confidence and pride to explain her reasons to them for her career choice. To her surprise, they had both been understanding and accepted her reasoning. Her father had even told her he was proud of her.

The man standing next to Blevins spoke. "Are you familiar with an agent named Fox Mulder?"

She tried not to laugh out loud. Had any of them taken the time to read her personal file? Was this what people higher in the chain of command did: waste agents' time by having them explain things that were already known?

She took a breath before answering. "Yes, I am."

Blevins nodded slightly as the man prompted, "How so?"

"Well, I am married to him. It's kind of hard not to be familiar with the man you live with every day." She smiled at the smoking man who hadn't spoken, hoping to break the ice with him. He didn't respond. She continued uncomfortably, "We have been married for over a year and a half. But, sir, all of this is available in Agent Mulder's and my personal file--"

Blevins continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Does your husband tell you what he does during his days here while you are teaching at Quantico?" He answered before she had a chance to. "The X-Files. Do you know what they investigate?"

Scully swallowed. So this is why they called her in. She warned Mulder not to be sticking his nose in places he shouldn't. "I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena," she answered simply.

He looked at her curiously. "You mean, you and your husband don't discuss what happens at work with each other?"

She could feel her temper flare. How dare this man criticize her marriage! "Sir," she said, barely keeping her anger in check, "I perform autopsies all day. Mulder, when he isn't investigating the X-Files, is busy trying to write profiles for the Behavioral Science Unit to keep serial killers off our streets. I don't think that our work is very conducive to good dinner talk."

Blevins nodded. "I understand, Agent Scully. Let's get back on topic. The reason you're here, Agent Scully, is we want you to assist Mulder on these X-Files. You will write field reports on your activities, along with your observations on the validity of the work."

Scully felt bile rising in the back of her throat. They wanted her to destroy Mulder's work? Maybe Mulder was right; the FBI really did want him out. "Am I to understand that you want me to debunk the X-Files project, sir? What about my relationship with Agent Mulder? Won't that be a conflict of interest?"

Blevins shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Agent Scully, we trust you'll make the proper scientific analysis. You'll want to contact Agent Mulder shortly. We look forward to seeing your reports." And with that, she was dismissed.

She walked out of the office with her mind going a hundred miles an hour. She couldn't pit herself against her husband just so she could get out of Quantico. True, she had requested a transfer, but not at this price. Not when her professional life had the potential to ruin her personal one.

Mulder heard the elevator doors open and the distinctive sound of high heels against the hard floor. The clicking stopped as she knocked on the door.

"Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted," he yelled.

Scully opened the door with a smile. "How long did it take you to come up with that one?"

He grinned back at her. "About five minutes. I wanted your first experience in the X-Files world to be memorable. You know, kind of like a 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind' sort of thing."

She looked around the room. Despite the fact he had been primarily working out of the basement for six months, this was the first time she had been down there. With her class schedule being so full, she rarely had time to drive to the Hoover Building. She looked at all the newspaper clippings and pictures with a raised eyebrow.

"So, what do you think?" he asked nervously.

Scully glanced at him. "That I'm glad you don't bring your work home with you." She smiled. "I'm kidding. It looks fine. Messy, but nothing a woman's touch can't fix."

They stood there staring at each, not saying anything. She shook her head at the situation. "This is ridiculous. I feel like I should be introducing myself to you or something."

He leaned back in his chair, looking at her through his glasses. "I'll take care of it for you." He stuck out his hand and started speaking in a high pitch voice. "I'm Agent Dana Scully. I'm the best instructor at Quantico, but wanted to pursue my dreams of becoming a field agent. Somehow, the transfer papers got mixed up and I got stuck down here with my husband." He let out a dramatic sigh. "Why couldn't I have been assigned to work with dreamy Tom Colton?"

She raised her eyebrow. "Are you done now?"

He nodded. "So..."

"Did you have any idea this was going to happen? I know you were concerned with my meeting this morning," she blurted.

He shook his head. "When I came in this morning, I had a memo waiting for me saying I was being assigned Dana Scully as a partner on the X-files. I thought there was something wrong at first, but Blevins' secretary confirmed it."

She leaned against his desk, frowning. "There's something not right here, Mulder."

He stood up and brushed her cheek. "I know it and you know it. But, hey, while you're here we might as well have some fun." He picked up slide canister and put it in the slide projector. "You know your thesis paper?"

She crossed her arms. She couldn't see where he was going with this. "Yes. You said you liked it."

"I did, I did, but I just want to warn you that here in the basement, the laws of physics rarely seem to apply." She rolled her eyes as he turned off the lights. Her husband always had a dramatic flare about him. "I have been meaning to get your medical opinion on this." He pushed the button to make the first slide appear. "Oregon female, age twenty one, no explainable cause of death. Autopsy shows nothing. Zip."

Click. The next slide came up. "There are, however, these two distinct marks on her lower back. Doctor Scully, can you ID these marks?"

She walked up to the screen. "Mulder, are you always this eager with your presentations?" His smile was her only answer. She turned back to the picture. "It could be a lot of things. Needle punctures, maybe. An animal bite. Electrocution of some kind. Without seeing the body I can't say for sure."

"Let's test your chemistry. This is the substance found in the surrounding tissue."

The slide now showed a molecular diagram. "It's organic. I don't know, is it some kind of synthetic protein?" she guessed half-heartedly. She figured he probably had the answer for her anyway.

He shrugged. "Beats me, I've never seen it before either."

Figures, she thought, as he continued speaking. Click. "But here it is again in Sturgis, South Dakota." Click. "And again in Shamrock, Texas."

"What are you thinking?"

"I think a lot of things, Scully. You of all people should know that. But I guess right now what is bothering me the most is why it's the FBI's policy to label these cases as 'unexplained phenomenon' and ignore them until someone has enough nerve to look into them."

He ran his hand through his hair. Now that he had started talking, he couldn't get himself to shut up. "No offense, Scully, but it ticks me off that you are down here."

Her eyes widened. She couldn't believe he had just said that. He couldn't believe he said that. She crossed her arms. "Why?"

With his paranoia at his highest, he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote: The walls may have ears. We'll talk tonight.

Scully pursed her lips together, but stayed silent. The fire in her eyes told Mulder he would have no peace until he rectified the situation. Dinnertime had never seemed so far away.

He swallowed and continued, "I know where you stand on the whole UFO issue, but you know this Oregon female? She's the fourth person in her graduating class the die under mysterious circumstances. Now, when convention and science offer us no answers, might we not finally turn to the fantastic as a possibility?"

Scully's anger was steadily building. At least they had this case to argue over rather than it turning into an afternoon of personal attacks. "The girl obviously died of something. If it was natural causes, it's plausible that here was something missed in the post-mortem. If she was murdered, it's plausible there was a sloppy investigation. What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look."

He looked up at her. "That's why they put the 'I' in FBI."

She rolled her eyes. "It's not funny, Mulder."

He feigned innocence. "What are you talking about?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't pretend everything is fine when it's not. Either we make this work out, or I'm going back to Quantico this afternoon. My marriage to you does not come second to work. And I'm sorry if you don't feel the same way." She turned to leave.

"Wait, Scully," Mulder called. "I love you."

She nodded. "I know. I love you too. I'll see you at home, Mulder."

Mulder's Residence  
6:45 p.m.

Mulder hadn't fully walked into their apartment when Scully pierced him with an icy glare. "Care to explain why my presence ticks you off so much?"

So much for the "Maybe she'll forget it" idea, he thought. He sighed at he dropped his keys on the entryway table. "Look, don't take it so personally. All I meant was that I hate the fact that they want to use you to break me down. They know if there is anyone who can do it, you can," he explained. "Is it so bad that I just want my wife to be my wife?"

She shook her head, trying to understand where he was coming from. "No, it's not. But, Mulder, you have got to believe in me. In us. There is no one who will watch your back as well as I do."

"I know there's not," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"But..." Scully prompted.

He walked to the living room and sat in one of the chairs. "It's going to be tough. We think completely differently. At home, it's not a big deal. But when we are working thirteen hours a day in a tense environment, something is bound to be said that will be hurtful. That's just what happens in a partnership."

She sat in his lap. "I tend to remember saying 'for better or worse' on my wedding day. I know things will be difficult until we get the kinks worked out, but I'm willing to try if you are."

He gave her a soft kiss. "I'm in, but we have to be completely honest with each other. If I'm annoying you, you have to tell me and I'll do the same."

"I annoy you?" she asked playfully. She stood up and led him to the kitchen. "Come on, partner, let's eat some dinner."

Bellefleur, Oregon  
11:15 a.m.

The two were driving down a long stretch of highway as Scully was reading the file. "Shouldn't you have read that last night, Agent Scully? Preparation is key," Mulder teased as he cracked a sunflower seed.

She looked up at him. "You'll have to talk to my husband. He decided to keep me up late last night."

"Sounds like fun. Wanna share the details?" he said, waggling his eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes as she went back to reading the file. "You didn't mention yesterday that this case has already been investigated."

He looked out his car window. If it wasn't for the grisly reason why they were there, he would appreciate the beautiful landscape around him. "Yeah, the FBI got involved after the first three deaths when local authorities failed to turn up any evidence. After a week, the agents investigating the case were called back in with no explanation. The case was reclassified as an X-File and buried until I dug it up last week."

"I take it you found something they didn't."

"Maybe."

Fine, Scully thought, he wanted her to figure out what he was thinking on her own. She could do that. She had known him for over two years; she should know how his brain thinks by now. She scanned the report until a piece of information caught her eye. "The autopsy reports of the first three victims show no unidentified marks or tissue samples. But those reports were signed by a different medical examiner."

"Give the lady a prize." He handed her a pile of seeds.

"Do you think the medical examiner is a suspect?"

"I've arranged to exhume one of the other victims' bodies to see if we can get a tissue sample to match the girl's." He smiled. "At least you can say our time spent together is memorable."

Scully grimaced. "Gee thanks."

Suddenly, the radio console began to act up. Stations were constantly alternating and the clock display was changing rapidly. A high-pitched screech filled the car. Scully covered her ears as Mulder looked out the window to see what was causing the noise. "What's going on?" Scully asked over the loud sound.

Mulder pulled over the car and turned it off. The sound stopped. "Thank you," Scully muttered under her breath.

"Be right back," he said, getting out of the car. He opened the trunk and took out a can of spray paint. He walked back several yards and sprayed a large "X" on the asphalt.

She got out of the car, shaking her head. "Not again. How many times did you do that on our honeymoon?"

"Twice," he said, putting the spray can back in the trunk. "But this is different, I can feel it."

Shaking her head, Scully took her seat back in the car and waited for Mulder.

Bellefleur Police Department  
10:02 p.m.

He knew Scully was still shaken at their encounter with Dr. Nemman in the afternoon. He rubbed her shoulders for a couple of minutes before asking, "You doing ok?"

She turned to face him and nodded. "Are the locals always that friendly?" Scully asked, changing into her scrubs.

"He's harmless. Probably more than a little scared of what you're going to find when you do that autopsy," he answered. He knew without question if someone would find anything out of the ordinary, it would be his wife. He felt a surge of pride wash over him as he looked at Scully.

She finished pulling her hair back. "And don't expect the words 'this victim is an alien' to come out of my mouth anytime during the autopsy."

He flashed a shark's grin. "You won't even know that I'm there."

Mulder couldn't stop taking pictures of the creature it front of him. "This is amazing, Scully. You know what this could mean? It's almost too big to comprehend."

Scully ignored him as best she could, beginning to record her findings in her tape recorder. Finally, after the 47th shot, she had enough. "Could you point that flash away from me, please?" Well, at least she said please. What she really wanted to do was throw the camera out the window.

"If it's not human, what is it?"

Correction, she thought, I want to throw Mulder out the window. She counted to ten mentally before answering. "It's mammalian. My guess it's something from the ape family."

He rolled his eyes. "Please, Scully. I love you, but you're crazy. An ape buried in the middle of Bellefleur? Could you even tell me where the closest zoo is? I want tissue samples and x-rays. I'd like blood type and toxicology and a full genetic work up."

"Mulder, the Bureau is not going to pay for all of that." She glanced at the body. It was sad that Ray Soames could not receive peace, even in his burial place. "This is not an extraterrestrial. This is someone's idea of a sick joke."

"About X-rays? We'll do some of those and if nothing shows up then you can forget the other stuff," he said, trying to compromise.

"Deal."

Room 213  
4:37 a.m.

Though she was extremely tired, Scully made herself finish writing her autopsy report. She transcribed the words as she heard them from her recorder. She paused the tape as she heard herself mention the implant the X-ray had found in the subject's nasal cavity.

She held up the clear tube that held the implant to the light. It was small and metallic. Even Mulder in his vast knowledge of things extraterrestrial couldn't come up with an answer for what it was.

The knock on their door startled her. "Who is it?"

"Room service," came Mulder's muffled reply.

She opened the door to Mulder, who had his hands full of food. "When I said get some food, I didn't mean enough to feed an army."

He grinned as she took a bite of her Chicken Whopper. "So, are you done with your report yet?" he asked, after she had finished eating.

"Close enough. You ready to get some sleep?"

He shook his head. "I'm way too wired."

"Well," she said, kissing his neck, "fortunately for both of us, I know something that you can put that energy towards."

With that, all thoughts of aliens and implants fled both of their minds.

Outside Raymon County State Psychiatric Hospital  
2:15 p.m.

They could still hear Peggy O'Dell screaming as they walked out of the building. Scully always knew Mulder had a way of making situations more interesting, but this was almost too much for her to handle.

"OK, spill it, Mulder," Scully demanded as walked to the car.

"What are you talking about?" he asked innocently.

"Damn it, Mulder, cut the crap. You and I made a promise that we were going to try and make things work. We can't do that if you keep things from me. What are those marks?"

He whipped around to face her. "You don't get it, do you? As soon as I tell you anything, you have to be the good little FBI agent and put it in your report. That's what I was talking about. I can't even talk to my own wife about how I feel."

She felt her anger quickly fade. She could understand the panic Mulder was experiencing. She was all he had to turn to for support and being here as his partner jeopardized that. "I just want to know what happened to those kids. I want the truth."

"I believe those kids have been abducted."

She looked at him for a couple of seconds before she realized what he was implicating. "By aliens? Come on, you can't really believe that!"

"Do you have a better explanation?"

She could feel his tension building. If she didn't do something to defuse the situation, he was sure to snap. "Let's just start with the victims. All of them died in or near the woods. How did they get there? What were those kids doing out there in the forest?"

Collum National Forest  
8:43 p.m.

They had a feeling that Nemman and anyone else involved with the cover up of what happened to the kids would be watching their moves, so they decided to stay together in the forest.

"Check it out," he said, referring to his compass. The needle was spinning wildly around.

"Remind me not to buy our summer home here," she responded.

They continued walking around the forest until they reached a clearing. "What is that?" Scully asked, pointing her flashlight to a pile of odd colored dirt on the ground. She picked some up and put it in her pocket.

As she stood up, a large rumbling sound came from where the road was. "Company's here," Mulder said.

They positioned themselves where they could see whoever was there, but remained undetected. Sheriff Miles walked around the clearing they were just in. He looked around for anyone. After a few moments, he got in his truck and left.

Mulder and Scully stayed still for a couple of seconds before moving. "That was too close, Mulder," she whispered, her voice shaky.

He rubbed her shoulder. "It just comes with the territory. You'll get use to it." He led her to the car which they had parked behind a large bush. He turned on the light as she pulled out a little of the sample she had taken from the clearing. "Let's see what you got."

She held it in the light. "Have any idea what it is?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe ash from a campfire."

She put the ash back in her pocket. "Maybe there is some kind of sacrifice going on. What if these kids are in some kind of occult and the sheriff knows about it?"

They glanced at the compass Mulder took out of his pocket. The needle began is spin around again. "I want to come back here tomorrow. Something strange is going on," she continued as he glanced at his watch--9:03.

"Mulder, you ok?"

He looked up, distracted. "Yeah, I just..." He looked out the windshield as he did earlier.

"What are you looking for?"

As she finished her questions, there was a loud roar. Suddenly, a bright light filled the car and they were frozen in time. Finally, the light faded away with the car stopping due to lack of power.

"I don't want to sound freaked out, but what just happened?" Scully tried to control the waver in her voice.

Mulder tried unsuccessfully to restart the car. "We lost power, brakes, steering, everything." He looked at his watch, trying to figure out if there would be an auto shop open this late in such a remote town. 9:12. He remembered looking at the time right before the light came. "We lost nine minutes." He opened the door. "You coming?" he asked Scully.

She got out of the car, the rain pouring down on her. "Any reason why you want us both to catch pneumonia?"

"We lost nine minutes," he repeated. "I looked at my watch just before the flash and it was 9:03. It just turned 9:13." He held his hand out for her to hold on to. "And if my gut is right," he said, walking to the back of the car, "we should be seeing something...Look! Look!" He proudly showed her the X he painted earlier.

"I don't believe it," she said. "And to think I thought you were crazy this morning."

"And now?" he said, his eyes hopeful.

"I think you're insane! Time can't just disappear, it's, it's a universal invariant!" she exclaimed, clinging desperately to her world of science.

As if the cosmos when against her, the car chose that moment to start up on its own. Mulder smiled at her as he led her to her side of the car. "Not in this zip code."

Room 213

Scully decided to take advantage of the time she had alone while Mulder took a shower to update her report. Keeping tabs on this investigation was difficult because it seemed as if everything was against her and her science. She reread her last sentence. "Agent Mulder's insistence of time loss due to unknown forces can neither be confirmed nor denied by this witness."

Ha, she thought, take that Blevins. She wasn't saying she believed Mulder, but had no intentions of making him look like a fool to the Bureau either.

"It is my--" she began typing. A loud thunderclap sounded and the power went out.

"Great," she muttered. Of course, she had forgotten to save her progress.

Mulder walked out of the bathroom as she pulled out a flashlight from her suitcase. "Ever taken a shower in the dark?"

"I don't plan on it," she said, shining the light in his face. "It's a good thing we brought these. Yours is on the bed. I'll be out later."

She closed the bathroom door and turned on the water. As she took off her clothes, her fingers rubbed against something unfamiliar on her back. She turned around quickly as saw two bumps on her back, exactly in the same location the other victims had their marks.

She walked out to the room where Mulder was lying on the bed. "Mulder, I need you to look at something."

He flashed the light at her nearly naked body. "I'm looking and I like what I see."

"I'm serious."

He noticed the shakiness of her voice. "What's wrong?"

She turned around and pointed to the bottom of her back. His heart started beating faster. What was scaring her so much? He quickly walked to where she had turned around and looked at the marks.

"What are they? Mulder?"

He smiled and kissed the soft skin next to the marks. "They are mosquito bites."

She turned around quickly. "Are you sure?"

He caressed her face gently. "Yeah. I got eaten up a lot myself out there. I was hoping the medical bag of yours would have some calamine lotion."

But she was so relieved, she didn't laugh at his joke. She threw her arms around them and kissed him thoroughly. "I was so scared."

He pulled away from her, her body still shaking from the scare. "You need to lie down."

Fifteen minutes had passed since the mosquito bite scare, but Scully couldn't convince herself to sleep. Mulder didn't mind at all and took a chance to ask her a question that had been on his mind since she walked into the basement.

"How do you feel about this assignment?"

Scully looked at him inquisitively. Out of all the questions she had expected, this one wasn't it. "Me?"

He nodded. "Yeah, you."

She sat quietly for a couple of seconds, coming up with just the right answer. She was never one to blurt out the first thing that popped in her mind.

"I would be lying to say this is what I expected when I applied for field agent status, but I feel like this is where I belong. By your side. There is no place I would rather be."

He smiled. "You'll be stuck with me day in and day out."

"I'll manage," she grinned back. Suddenly, her face turned serious. "This interest of the X-Files has to do with Samantha, doesn't it?"

"I know what I saw, Scully. I don't want to get into it right now." The tone of his voice left no room for argument.

While most things in their marriage were wonderful, the one sore spot between them was Samantha's disappearance. Though she had never outright said so, Mulder knew she didn't believe a word of what he said on his regression tapes. By a mutual agreement, they decided to agree to disagree and only bring up the issue when it was pertinent.

"Mulder, in order to work with you, I need to understand your motives. Are you working these cases to try and find your sister or is there something bigger than that?"

"This is bigger than Samantha's disappearance, I promise you. There's classified government information I've been trying to access that associated with some of the X-Files, but someone has been blocking my attempts to get at it," he explained.

She propped herself up a little higher. "Who? Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

"I don't know who. And I didn't say anything because I didn't want you involved. But now," he said sadly, "you're a part of their agenda."

She ran her hands through his hair gently. "I'm not going to be part of their agenda. They are going to realize that partnering us together is the biggest mistake they have made. We'll find out what they are trying to hide."

"Even if it's a UFO?"

She looked at him. "Give me the proof and I'll believe it."

The phone rang, making Scully jump. She was going to have to calm her nerves if she was ever going to be a successful field agent.

"Hello? What? Who is this? Who..." Mulder said. He hung up the phone. "That was some woman. She just said Peggy O'Dell was dead."

"The girl in the wheelchair?" Scully's head was spinning.

"Come on," he said, helping off the bed. "We better go check it out."

Rural Highway 133  
10:59 p.m.

After seeing Peggy O'Dell's dead body, along with the news the lab had been broken into, Mulder had no choice but to go back to the hotel.

"I can't believe they stole the damn body!" Mulder hit the steering wheel again.

"Well," she said, hoping to encourage him, "at least the samples I took are safely in Quantico."

He turned towards her. "You sure about that?"

She didn't say anything until they pulled up to their hotel, which was on fire. "I don't believe this," he said to himself.

The two got out of the car. Mulder kicked the side of the car. "The x-rays and pictures! They are all gone!"

Scully motioned him back over to her side of the car. "I was a little suspicious of the locals in the area, what with Dr. Nemman's reaction to the body excavation and Sheriff Lewis in the woods tonight, so I thought it would be a good idea to take anything pertaining to the investigation with us. I put it all in the car when you were getting dressed."

He looked up and smiled. "Scully, I love you." He began kissing her when they heard someone clear their throat. They turned to face the person.

Her frightened eyes spoke more loudly than her shaky voice. "My name is Theresa Nemman. You've got to protect me."

"Come with us," Mulder instructed.

Henry's Diner  
1:23 a.m.

Dr. Nemman quickly loaded his daughter in the van as Detective Miles kept an eye on the agents, making sure they were going to stay where they were. Once Theresa was secure, Detective Miles entered his own vehicle and left the parking lot.

"Well, you certainly make a lot of friends working on the X-Files, don't you?" Scully said dryly as the van pulled away. "Those two men, they know who is responsible for those murders."

"They know something, but I don't think they truly understand what's going on. I just don't see how Dr. Nemman thinks he is going to protect his daughter," Mulder said, chewing on the end of a straw.

"Did you see that girl's face? She's petrified. Her father lied on the reports, thinking that would give her some kind of extra chance," she said.

He looked out the window, hoping for some insight. "He had to have seen something when he was doing the autopsy," he muttered.

An idea popped in her head. "Maybe the answer is still here. Mulder, there are still two other corpses."

He nodded, seeing where she was going with her theory. "Come on, Scully, let's go on a date."

Bellefleur Cemetery  
3:07 a.m.

The two agents walked together on the soggy grass, pointing their flashlights, trying to read the names on the tombstones as the rain poured on them. Suddenly, they came across two piles of dirt and two empty plots.

"What is going on here?" she asked. Nothing in Quantico could have prepared her for this case.

He looked at her, putting the last piece of the puzzle together. "I think I know who did it. I think I know who killed Karen Swenson."

Scully always appreciated the fact that her husband was a brilliant profiler. Most of the time, she could even see his jumps in logic, but this time his leap was too great for her to comprehend. "Who? The detective?" she asked, taking a shot in the dark.

He shook his head slowly. "The detective's son. Billy Miles."

She couldn't believe her ears. There was no way he really believed his idea. "The boy in the hospital? The vegetable?! Billy Miles, a boy who's been a coma for four years, got out here and dug up these graves?" Maybe, she thought, if he heard the facts, he would realize how ridiculous he sounded.

But, in his stubbornness, he refused to hear any of her arguments. "Peggy O'Dell was bound to a wheelchair, but she managed to run in front of a truck. Look, it all fits the profile of alien abduction."

Oh, that was grand. Now suddenly, there was a profile. "You have got to be joking me!"

"Listen, Scully, just for a second. Peggy O'Dell was killed around nine o'clock. That was around the time we lost nine minutes. I think something happened during that time."

Despite the situation, Scully found herself smiling. Mulder always did have a talent is spinning a good tale.

"You think I'm crazy," he said, a little hurt.

She nodded before she remembered what she saw earlier at the scene of the accident. Turning to face him, she said, "Mulder, when I looked at Peggy O'Dell's body, I noticed that her watch stopped a couple of minutes after nine."

Mulder walked up to her. "See? The forest somehow controls the kids and summons them there. And the marks must be from some kind of test that is being done on them."

Scully could see where Mulder was going with his theory. "And the force summoned Theresa Nemman into the woods tonight."

"Yes, but it was Billy Miles who actually took her there. That's it!" he exclaimed, picking her up and spinning her around.

She started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. Here they were, husband and wife, standing in the middle of the pouring rain in a cemetery talking about alien abductions. She could hear the conversation over her parent's dinner table right now.

"Come on, let's get out of here," he said, pulling her from her thoughts. "We're going to pay a visit to Billy Miles."

Raymon County State Psychiatric Hospital  
4:30 a.m.

Mulder was busy talking to the nurse while Scully examined Billy Miles. She pulled back the sheet and saw dirt covering his feet. She quickly took a sample from there and held it up for Mulder to see. She sealed the vial and put it in a plastic bag as Mulder thanked the nurse.

As soon as they walked out of the room, Scully began talking excitedly. "That kid may have killed Peggy O'Dell, I don't believe this."

"Scully..." Mulder said.

"It's crazy! He was in the woods," she said, almost to herself.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"This looks like the same stuff I took a handful of in the forest," she explained, holding up the vial.

"Well, maybe we should take it and run a lab test..."

Scully couldn't believe her ears. Was this really Mulder, requesting a lab test? What happened to his wild theories that needed no proof?

As if he could hear her thoughts, he said, "You have to write it in your report. I just don't want you looking bad."

She nodded. She couldn't afford to let her excitement cloud her science. "You're right. But, I need another sample. The one I took has been in my jacket pocket. There would be cross contamination with anything else that I had ever put in there. Let's go get another sample from the forest and run a comparison."

Collum National Forest  
5:07 a.m.

They were surprised to see the detective's truck parked outside the forest again. "Think they know something we don't?" Mulder asked.

Before Scully could answer, they heard a woman's scream. "Theresa," Scully whispered.

They started running through the forest, each taking a separate route, hoping to find the girl. Scully ran past a tree when Detective Miles jumped out in front of her and hit her on the head with his gun. She fell to the ground and looked up at him. "You should have been like the other agents and just gone home."

She tried to chase him, but her head was still spinning, forcing her to sit on the ground. Mulder, she thought, you have to save that girl.

Mulder continued running blindly into the forest until he heard another scream. He turned left, following the sound. He tripped over a root and when he looked up, Detective Miles stood over him with a shotgun. "You have no business out here."

"My partner and I heard screams," Mulder said.

Miles grimly smiled. "She won't be hearing anything for a while, I'm afraid. She got a nasty bump on her head."

"Scully," Mulder whispered.

"Down on the ground! Now!" Miles shouted. He looked over the hill.

"You know it's Billy. You've known it all along," Mulder said incredulously.

He turned his gaze back to Mulder. "I said down on the ground."

Mulder kneeled as he looked behind the detective for any signs of Scully. Surely, the detective wouldn't have done anything to her. Theresa's screams filled the air again. Or maybe he would, Mulder thought.

"He's going to kill her!" Mulder yelled, hoping that Scully could hear him.

For whatever reason, Mulder's words prompted the detective to run. He followed him into the clearing where Billy Miles was. "Billy, no! Let her go!" his dad yelled over the wind.

Mulder saw the young man holding Theresa in the middle of the clearing. The wind was increasing. Mulder knew he didn't have much time left. Detective Miles thought the same thing, because he pointed his shotgun at Billy. Mulder tackled him, not wanting anybody to die.

Despite his efforts, a shot did go off. But, no one was hurt nor was Billy distracted. A bright light filled the clearing, Mulder and Detective Miles watching the leaves swirl around the two. After a moment, the wind died down and there was a loud roar of thunder.

Both Billy and Theresa were still there.

"Dad?" Billy asked.

Mulder watched as the detective approached his son, but then remembered the detective's words. "Scully!" He picked up his flashlight and started running the way he came. "Scully!" he yelled.

Moments later, he saw a beam of light coming towards him. "Mulder, what happened? I saw a faint light in the distance."

"It was incredible, Scully. Incredible," he said, hugging his wife.

FBI Headquarters  
Washington, D.C.

Blevins and a man she did not know led Scully back into his office after watching Billy Miles' regression therapy for a few minutes. "What we've just witnessed, what we've read in your field reports...the scientific basis and credibility just seem wholly unsupportable, you're aware of that?"

Her eyebrows went down in confusion. "Sir, Agent Mulder and I have at least twenty pieces of evidence pertaining to this case, which include x-rays, pictures, and physical evidence collected from the victims and at the crime scene."

The men exchanged glances. "I was told that your hotel had been destroyed in a fire, that all evidence had been lost," Blevins said uncomfortably.

She saw the look of panic of their faces, especially Blevins. One point for the good guys, she thought. "Sir, it appears you were misinformed. All of the evidence has been properly filed and is in the evidence locker right now. I believe that what Agent Mulder and I collected in the case leads to justify the legitimacy of these investigations."

Blevins shot a glance to the man on his left. "Thank you, Agent Scully, that will be all."

Mulder's Residence  
11:21 p.m.

Scully stirred as she felt the bed dip down. "Mulder? Everything ok?"

"No," he grunted. "Apparently there was a mix up in the evidence locker. Everything we collected for our case has mysteriously vanished. No one can explain it."

To his surprise, Scully smiled at him. "It's going to be fun keeping these guys on their toes."

He lay next to her and grinned, despite his disappointment. "And to think, this is only the beginning.

End.

Challenge Rules: Alternate Universe: Mulder and Scully were/are in a relationship before "Pilot" -- how Mulder react to his girlfriend/fiancée/wife as his partner? How does Scully react?


End file.
